Liberty Democracy and the Ancient Marbles

This last week I spoke in a conference in Athens on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the Elgin marbles taken from Acropolis and interned into the British Museum.

And it was also the 20th year anniversary of the organization I had founded named REUNIFICATION that was the first foundation in London that worked to reunite the Elgin marbles with Parthenon, the magnificent temple to Athena in Acropolis.

The occasion allowed participants to recall a few truths about Greece and Europe. As I stated in the conference: “The marbles were taken from Greece when she was under Ottoman occupation and perhaps best that they should be returned now when Greece is again under occupation — hoping that it would sparkle Resistance, Revolution against the tyranny of slavery and the eventual winful Renaissance. After all, this has been the only path for regeneration of Democracy over the centuries and preceding millennia. Yet Greece is pivotal in this worldwide human struggle against the fgorces of darkness, because here is where the concept of Liberation of Man and Self Determination was first created.

And it is a sad day when the current Prime Minister a simple servant to the German economic power comes and sullies the very word itself speaking about Democracy, while enslaving the Greek people to the occupying barbarians.

Yet for me things are simple. I saw the modern day slavery of poverty and dependence and unmet need for food and medicine in GREECE today in the year of the Lord 2014. I see GREECE suffering the fate of Sisifus inside the wealthiest market alliance, the European Union. And I cannot stomach that.

Woe to the German puppets of Greece masquerading as Ministers and NMangers of a small yet proud people. Woe to the Germans and their European allies who pretend they do not know the depth of their dishonesty and the errorr of their ways assaulting Democracy and the very idea of Europe itself through their tyrannical austerity forced upon a once happy people. Woe to the betrayers of the highest ideals thqat define Europe.

Andf woe to Europe itself becuase the main legacy of Greece to Democracy and Liberty is Democracy and Liberty itself. And the main legacy of Greece tgo Europe — is Europe itself.

Still when I spoke at the Acropolis conference with my usual candor and passion and asked Greeks and Foreigners living in Greece, to recognize their condition of Serfdom and wanton Slavery as a prerequisite before being able to revolt and remove their shackles of bondage — there was an eruption in the room. The whole audience of the amphitheatre stood up. Some were clapping while others feigned distress. Some were screaming halleluiah while others screamed obscenities. There were primal screams and shouts of woe, joy, and sorrow…

At least nobody stood unmoved. Of course several of the participants felt hurt and bristled at my mention that Greeks are slaves again and under German occupation once more after the second world war occupation. But it was especially satisfying when a government Minister and fellow speaker, standing at the panel, exploded in full rage, ad-hominem attacks, and undignified behaviour against me.

I thought the poor fellow would have a heart attack or a stroke — or best a combination of both…

But the majority of the audience members correctly interpreted my speech as a call to arms for Greece to not only regain the marbles but above all else regain it’s Liberty and Democracy once again.

Socrates first told us that we need to know ourselves and face our condition if we are to recognize what ails us and then go ahead and treat it. Same with the current slavery. First we recognize that we are slaves and then we go ahead and fight for our Liberation. And when we have a giant deficit of Democracy
that is all we have to do. As we have done many times in the long history of this wondrous little nation.

That is why I use the reference of the ancient marbles as a metaphor to Liberty and Democracy itself — because as the marbles were sculpted and placed on the temple of Democracy in Ancient Athens, they were there in order to commemorate the men who fought in Marathon and had fallen winning the battle against the then Occupiers of Greece.

But it was a full Democracy of Pericles and of the Free Athenian people who created those marbles back then. Free People and a Democratic State created the miracle of parthenon and the Acropolis that to this day symbolizes Democracy the world over. These were the leaders of Democracy and the rightful owners of the marbles. And by Rights the descendants of these Free and Democratic people are the owners of the marbles today — not a bunch of slaves to the barbarian gothic huns…

Legacies, Memories, and Ancient Values, all mean very little today when the Greeks are subjugated to the German puppet masters. Yet the metaphor of the Quest for the Return of the MARBLES, is the very Quest for Democracy and liberty once more. So the Greeks are called once again to ward off the new occupiers of Athens. I ask them to send the barbarous Huns back to their land and . The deadly threat this current occupation poses to Greece’s Democracy, Liberty, and nationhood, is the main spark that could very well destroy the entire European project

It is only an existential crisis that the Greeks respond well to. Everything else is unimportant when their core ideals are usurped and their dignity efaced. That is far more important than the lifeless marble statuary safely ensconced in the British museum.

Greeks are practical people… Who cares for marbles when your daughter is prostituting herself in Berlin because there are no jobs to be had in Greece for anyone in your family and she is tired of living with hand outs and charity? And worse yet — who can blame her?

Yet Greeks are idealistic people too… So who cares for euros and comforts of serfdom when your heart skirts at the mere mention of Liberty and Democracy?

Because the most important value demonstrated in the ancient marbles is undoubtedly the concept of democracy and liberty. These two qualities of self governance and self determination, are precisely the soul of Greece and they also represent our whole lot of European aspirations.

This is the sum total of Europe itself…

And when the very conception of democracy and liberty are diminished by the Germans today in Greece — the rest of Europe is gravely threatened in the times ahead.

The main threat has actually already materialized in the Greek capital, bristling with GERMAN BUREAUCRATS regulating the affairs of all Ministries and of the prime Minister himself.
And I can see its sprawling symbolic impact during each one of my visits and working sojourns in Athens.

The symbols of German Reich are not difficult to see amidst the chaos of the upended Greek lives. The German influence is felt in the children eating off the garbage bins. It is seen in the schools where children faint because of lack of having had any breakfast at home. It is seen in the many instances of citizens incarcerated for being unable to pay unfair and onerous taxes they cannot bear. It is seen in the austerity program that stifles all enterprise and business opportunity and relegates all Greeks to be servants of the visiting Germans. It is seen in the lack of Habeas Corpus rights for the Greek people. It is seen in the vast Debtor’s prisons that are being built to house the best of Greeks. It is seen in the only free Greeks, the Ten Thousand Suicides each and every year of life under the new German occupation. It is seen in the eyes of the German Gauleiter Mr Horst Reichenbach and the lavish German Receptions in their embassy feasting all the Greek collaborators and their Greek servants running the local government and oppressing the people on their behalf. It is seen in the cruelty with which they deny offering any compensation for the victims of their previous occupation on 1940-1944 and for the million Greek people they killed back then through executions, and forced starvation and famine induced by German occupation much like today’s Austerity program foisted upon the Greek people by the Germans and their collaborators. It is seen in the cemeteries where the suicide victims are now interned for the first time in contrast to religious law and as the spirit of defiance takes over even the black robbed Greek priests who recognize the acts of heroism and personal freedom of those giving up their lives rather that being slaves like the rest of the living in Greece.

The disaster that Greece is now is evident in the ghetto that Athens has become as if it is the Gaza of Europe. The worst hit poverty stricken nation of the union looks like a bombed out city in many parts of the capital and the Germans are lording it over the ruins of people and lives lost.

Ten Thousand suicides can’t be

It is seen in the Germans having a second home called Greece….

full of servants called Greeks…

Yours,
Pano

PS:
Revolutions happen for a reason and there is ample reason in Greece today to revolt and overthrow the tyranny and regain the living meaning of the marbles: Liberty, Democracy, and Self Determination.

This is how Government of the people, by the People, and for the People, came to be known across the world with it’s Greek name for two Thousand years and this is the Real Marble that GREECE can hang on to forever.

All else is just PR and talking about the lifeless marbles is a diversion from the real issue of Liberty & Democracy.

This has to be reclaimed in order to reunite the Greeks with the ancient ideas these marbles remind us of. Freedom and Self Governance. Ideas as old school and as powerful that the current crop of Nazis tremble at the mere mention of.

Time for Greece to reclaim that mantle of Leadership.

Nothing Less will suffice, to appease the Greek citizens whose blood is boiling already…